NSW Rugby coach Ewen McKenzie expects the Cheetahs to get stuck into his side physically after the mind games heading into this weekend's Super 14 clash in Kimberley are over.

Earlier this week, McKenzie named just a squad rather than a team after being frustrated by late changes to the Waratahs' first two South African opponents.

Although he gave some clues about his starting side to onlookers at training this week, McKenzie suggested he might field a different line-up at the final captain's run.

Should NSW take the field in the formation displayed at training earlier in the week, highly rated teenage five-eighth Kurtley Beale would make his first Super 14 start.

Other possible changes included Brett Sheehan replacing Josh Valentine at halfback and Dean Mumm potentially getting a first Super 14 start at lock in place of Ben Hand.

Another intriguing training ground twist had Sam Harris playing at inside centre with Ben Jacobs switched from that position to outside centre and with Wallaby Morgan Turinui on the bench.

McKenzie didn't intend releasing his finalised line-up until an hour before the kick-off at 1am (AEDT) on Sunday.

He wasn't overly concerned about whether the run-on side selected by Cheetah's coach Rassie Erasmus would change, but expected the South African side to stick to an established pattern.

"I still think that they will see us as a little bit inconsistent at the moment, being a youngish team," McKenzie said.

"I'm sure they will endeavour to physically get stuck into us, so we've got to make sure we can match them.

"Their formula has been pretty consistent over the last 18 months, it's been successful for them so I don't imagine they will depart from it.

"They will play periods of the game where they will try to bash us through the forwards and then at various points they will play with width."

NSW captain and flanker Phil Waugh emphasised NSW had spent the week attempting to eradicate the errors which marred their effort against the Sharks last week.

"There's been a real concerted effort to tighten up our game and make less errors at training, but at the end of the day it's what we put on the field that counts," Waugh said.

"It's certainly going to be a battle of attrition up front."

McKenzie said the 4pm local time kick off could be quite challenging for his side as it had encountered a very dry heat in Kimberley this week.

"We are a smaller team than the Cheetahs, so hopefully that will be more of a disadvantage for them than us," McKenzie said.

Both teams have tallied a win and a loss so far, while the Cheetahs were beaten by the Force in their last game at Kimberley.

Teams

Cheetahs: Philip Burger, Eddie Fredericks, Marius Joubert, Meyer Bosman, Ronnie Cooke, Herkie Kruger, Falie Oelschig, Darron Nell, Juan Smith (c), Kabamba Floors, Corniel van Zyl, Bian Vermaak, Jannie du Plessis, Adriaan Strauss, Wian du Preez. Reserves: Richardt Strauss, CJ van der Linde, Hendro Scholtz, Ryno van der Merwe, Michael Claassens, Gavin Passens, Tiger Mangweni.

Waratahs squad (team to be named):

Forwards: Al Baxter, Will Caldwell, Tim Davidson, Rocky Elsom, Adam Freier, Ben Hand, Dean Mumm, Wycliff Palu, Tatafu Polota-Nau, Benn Robinson, Jeremy Tilse, Phil Waugh (c).

Backs: Kurtley Beale, Daniel Halangahu, Sam Harris, Peter Hewat, Ben Jacobs, Sam Norton-Knight, Brett Sheehan, Lote Tuqiri, Morgan Turinui, Josh Valentine.

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